Iran Gives Details of Disbanding US Cyber Espionage Networks

An Iranian Intelligence Ministry official gave new details on the “heavy blow” that Iranian intelligence forces have inflicted on the US by detecting and disbanding two sophisticated cyber espionage networks affiliated to the CIA.

In comments on Tuesday, director general of the counterespionage department of the Intelligence Ministry said the Islamic Republic has dealt the “first global blow to the American espionage network” in the cyber-space.

The official said more details of the new attack on the hostile network will be released in the near future.

In another operation in recent months, the official added, the Iranian intelligence forces dealt a blow to a new network of the US spies.

A detailed description of the operations and the evidence of activities of the CIA spies in foreign countries will be published after judicial processes, the official said.

“The US espionage network includes a considerable number of professional CIA spies who have received a blow in the recent attack from the Intelligence Ministry of the Islamic Republic and its global allies,” the official said, adding that the spies involved in the case are regarded as “premium sources” by the CIA, because of their close cooperation with the US spy agency and the information they had been providing.

Highlighting the counterespionage activities of the Intelligence Ministry at the international level, the official said Iran uses the “capacities of other allied (intelligence) services” in the battle against the US.

He also said Iran’s success to uncover Washington’s international cyberespionage network not only prevented hostile intelligence measures against Tehran, but also disrupted a remarkable part of the global intelligence activities of the United States.

The Americans take advantage of the cyber-space to act against Iran and also to contact their spies across the world through safe communication systems, the official said, s noting that the Iranian forces managed to penetrate into the US cyberespionage systems, which operate under the guise of social, health or athletic websites.

“Detection of the spies was not confined to Iran alone, although Persian websites were also among those sites,” the intelligence official stated, adding that a number of the spies were identified as Iranians committing treason and cooperating with the CIA from inside the country deliberately.

Some of those Iranian nationals were brought to justice, while a number of others were used as an “opportunity” and employed for infiltration into the US cyberespionage network, the official added.

The director general explained that the US tried to retrieve all of the spies and bring them out of different countries after realizing the blow from Iran, which resulted in the termination of the network.

The spies working for the CIA used to cover various industrial, military, cyber, economic and infrastructural spheres, the official noted, adding that Americans have described the blow as a defeat that resulted in the shutdown of their plans.

Americans have explicitly described their failure as “an utter global crash, an intelligence scandal, and America’s biggest intelligence defeat after the September 11 (attacks) that has inflicted hundreds of billions of dollars in costs and loss on them,” the Iranian official concluded.

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